Substance-abuse disorders are caused by the use of various types of addictive substances, including drugs of abuse. Millions of persons worldwide are believed to be drug abusers suffering from substance-related disorders. Substance-related mental disorders produce a high cost to society, including socially dysfunctional people, criminal activity, and increased costs of medical care. Thus, there is a worldwide demand for effective treatments of substance-related disorders.
Whereas historically only a relatively small number of drugs were available in local communities, e.g., drugs that could be produced locally, worldwide global commerce has made it possible for a wide variety of drugs to be available locally. As a consequence, it has recently been recognized that persons may be addicted to several substances at the same time. This phenomenon is known as “polysubstance” abuse or addiction. Polysubstance drug users often do not have a particular drug of choice, but rather are addicted to not being sober. While a variety of protocols exist for the medical treatment of addiction to a single substance, there are relatively few effective protocols for the medical treatment of polysubstance abuse. A need exists for innovative methods of treating polysubstance abuse and addiction.
At the onset of any substance-related addiction, the central nervous system (“CNS”) reward system is stimulated. The reward system has been identified as the site responsible for intracranial self stimulation, and it plays a role in eliciting senses of pleasure, motivation, and euphoria. The treatment of drug dependence can be made very difficult because many addictive substances stimulate this system, thereby eliciting senses of pleasure in users. This influence remains even after the drug, as a causative agent, is depleted from the body.
Cranial electrostimulation (“CES”) has been used to treat addiction by electronically modulating the CNS reward system in addicted persons. CES devices typically deliver low levels of AC current across the head in order to modulate the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and other neurotransmitter systems in the brain for the purposes of affecting anxiety, stress, and addictive behaviors. When used for addiction, CES devices typically produce a series of waveforms that vary in shape, frequency, pulse width, or other attributes in order to target a variety of acute and chronic withdrawal symptoms. The selection and timing of those various waveforms constitute “protocols” that may be targeted towards different addictive substances (e.g., heroin, cocaine, methadone, alcohol, nicotine, etc). For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,865,048 and 5,593,432, which are incorporated herein by reference, both describe protocols and devices that use electronic neurostimulation to treat addiction to a single substance. While effective single-substance protocols have been developed, a substantial percentage of substance abusers take multiple substances at the same time creating a need for effective polysubstance protocols. That is, these prior art devices and methods cannot be effectively used in the simultaneous treatment of addiction to multiple substances as is present in polysubstance addiction. Therefore, a continuing and unmet need exists for new and improved devices and methods of use for the treatment of polysubstance addiction. The present invention provides a solution to these problems, among other things.